How is it decided if something is a street, drive, lane, etc.?

Whoever builds the development generally gets to name the streets, within the constraints of the local zoning laws.

I believe there are ways for the population to make a request and bring some signatures that a street be renamed. But this only if the name is not takes and the name has any relevance. There was a street in the UK called ” Butt hole road” ... erm I am grateful the planners changed the name so those jokes could stop.

To clarify, what we were talking about wasn’t the actual names of the streets, but the words following the name. Why is “Monroe Street” a street, rather than say, a lane, avenue, boulevard?

Funny, I was just thinking about this very thing!

Around here, the designation is very specific. Streets run North/South, Avenues run East/West.

Blvds have a physical divider in the middle (or at least a designated turning lane). Lanes allow 2-way traffic but they don’t have painted shoulders or dividing lines. Drives and Alleys are usually one-way only.

I’m guessing certain words like boulevard (being borrowings from other languages) have historically established uses or meanings e.g. “boulevard” indicating a major and wide thoroughfare, while “lane” or “close” tend to refer to small, less trafficked or even unpaved through ways… and “alley” was historically (I believe) deemed for pedestrian or horse traffic

A lane, at least what I have been taught, is a road with on both sides rows of trees.

Wiki has a page about different types of roads that might clear things up. I haven’t read through it yet.

A lot of it is as @WestRiverrat described: the developer designates roads and streets and drives, and it gets approved by the Planning Department. I lived in a development that was built in 63–65, and all the streets were either “Drives” or “Ways”.

And where I am now lanes are used for privately maintained dead end streets.

Local zoning boards establish the definitions of what type of road something is. Here is an example.

Well, there are some generalities. Drives tend to be curved, avenues tend to be tree-lined, both avenues and streets tend to not dead-end, ways tend to be short, lanes tend to be straight, courts end in a cul-de-sac, boulevards tend to have at least 4-lanes, etc. At least, these are the patterns I’ve noticed in the places I’ve lived.

I owe the long (.3 mile) rustic driveway from my house to the street; there is another house that has an easement to use it. Since there are now two residences on the drive, it is considered a public thoroughfare according to 911 and needed a name.

The honor fell to me, as owner.. Because of the beautiful blue wild flowers, I now live on Chicory Lane. Lane has a connotation of a modest and bucolic track.

Apple, the company formerly known as Apple Computer, is located at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino.
There was a street named Hard Disk Drive in that neighborhood but I cannot find it on the maps. My recollection is that Seagate was located there until it moved up to Hwy 17 on the pass from San Jose to Santa Cruz.